Thu 31 Aug - Ilmer

Now - have I mentioned that Skip and Carol have THE most beautiful house in Ilmer, Buckinghamshire.  Have a wee look at this.... 😃

And some other houses and church in Ilmer

After a slow start we nipped out to Hughenden Manor.

Set in an unspoiled Chiltern valley with views of ancient woodlands and rolling hills, Hughenden was the  home of Victorian Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, and his wife Mary Anne in the mid 1800's.

Dinner was FANTASTICALLY delicious Indian at Radhuni restaurant in Princes Risborough

Wed 30 Aug - Ilmer

And after last night's dinner felt totally obliged to go for a run.  It's flat around Ilmer so that helped me do a teensy weensy bit of a longer one...

And then it was off to a reunion lunch with Dad's friends from his college days.  

L-R Sheila, Skip, Pat, John, Carol, Mike Dad, Margaret, Ken

It was a lovely event as I think these photos show..

with lots of reminiscing...

All in all it was a lovely day 😎

And this gorgeous house was just opposite the pub where we had lunch....

Tues 29 Aug - Ilmer

OK - if you are in the UK and anywhere near Buckinghamshire I can't recommend a trip to Bletchley Park highly enough. It is fascinating!! We spent 4 hours there and could easily have stayed another 2.

 

The Bletchley Park Mansion and bottom right - our tour guide

By the time we got kicked out a 5pm my brain hurt with trying to understand the Bombe - the ultimate code cracker that tackled - and succeeded - in unravelling the Enigma gibberish used so widely by the Germans in the second world war.

As our guide put it, the decoding process was like looking for a needle in a haystack - not by looking for the needle itself, but by examining and eliminating each strand of hay!

I soooo wanted to understand how the Bombe worked, but pfft, it defeated me. I got that each column of 3 cylinders represented a different enigma machine and that each colour represented one of three rotors, The bit I didn't / don't understand is the Plugboard and why it seemed to only swap 10 (instead of 13) pairs of letters. More research required!!

 

Dad and Skip chatting to out tour guide and hot dogs for lunch!!

Bletchley Park, Alan Turning, Gordon Welchman, Tommy Flowers, the Bombe machines and about 8000 other employees worked tirelessly throughout the war to decode hundreds of thousands of encrypted German messages and once the code was cracked the tables started turning. What the outcome wold have been without the assistance of this effort may have been vastly different!

The Enigma Machine

Our guide was a little less than complimentary about the Imitation Game, but I'm a keen bean to watch it again. And - possible true story - Alan Turing committed suicide in 1954 after being found guilty of homosexuality. Much of his post- war work was in Manchester. The city has adopted him and he has become a symbol of gay pride. The story goes he drank cyanide and then took a bite out of an apple immediately afterwards to get rid of the taste. Apparently the apple was found next to his body and became the inspiration and logo adopted by Steve Jobs for his Apple empire.

The Bombe and Alan Turing

Bletchley Park tuckered out all of us - but in the best possible way. And as a thank you for having us - Dad treated Richard (aka Skip, aka Dick) to dinner at the Thatch in Thame. I chose well and had a delicious 3 course meal, but unfortunately Dad was not happy with his £35 steak and sent it back!! He said the second one wasn't much better! Eeeek! And then to top it off his dessert was less than stellar whereas mine was brilliant! Damn damn and double damn!! BUT good news! The wine (see label) was EXCELLENT. But strongly doubt I'll be able to find it in Oz. Sigh.

All in all a fabulous day!!

Mon 28 Aug - Weedon Bec - Ilmer

Travel day - Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire to Ilmer in Buckinghamshire.  Only 53 miles and 1 hour, so we had plenty of time for a visit to the top National Trust attraction en route. 

We went to Waddesdon Manor 10 years ago and remember it being extraordinarily opulent and it was just as remembered.  

I'm positive inside photos weren't allowed 10 years ago, but they are now, but not that they do this incredible place justice...

The opulence was overwhelming...

And outside was just as stunning......

Complete with aviary, wooden elephant statues...

And glorious fountains.

And the town of Waddesdon was delightful as well.  Check out the detail on those chimneys!

Sun 27 Aug - Weedon Bec

Another run!  6km this time - with the first 2 being solid uphill - stuff that 😡!

And because I saw so much nice scenery - the run was backed up with a car trip and camera....

to the near perfect little village..

of Farthingstone

Just lovely!!

And then it was on to a nearby National Trust property Canon's Ashby

Canons Ashby was home to the Dryden family for over 400 years and has a rich history. The name is made up of ‘Ashby’ meaning ‘farmstead’ and ‘Canons’ from the group of canons who founded the Augustinian Priory in the 12th century.

Augustinian Priory

House interior

And exterior...

Sat 26 Aug - Weedon Bec

4th UK Parkrun TICK 😀👍. This one was my favourite - it was a complete lap with dipsy doodle of the Daventry Country Park.  Just beautiful and not an out and back or a double loop - yay!! And yep - I did go home and trim my fringe after that photo was taken. 😂😆

A few snaps from John and Hazel's garden (including a suss looking plant - tried munching on a leaf - nothing!)

And here's a few shots of Weedon Bec - a lovely village with incredibly varied architecture and some very very old houses.  All of the village pictures were taken within about 100m of each other and the countryside was within a couple of kms.

And in the afternoon we visited the 1802 Royal Ordnance Depot in the centre of Weedon Bec where we met the very informative John #3! The Depot was instrumental in the supply of guns, ammunition, gun powder and boots during both the first and second world wars.

Strategically and purposefully situated in the centre of England to be furthest from coastal invasion it was built for the services of His Majesty’s Ordnance and was used to store and repair small arms and cannon.

The Depot was an important and largely secretive arms distribution point for some 150 years. It remained in operation throughout the Second World War and through to the 1950s. The site was decommissioned in 1965 and the buildings have remained under Grade 11 listing.

View of Weedon Bec showing the Depot

Fri 25 Aug - Weedon Bec

Main activity today was a trip to Stoke Bruerne, Towcester (pronounced Toaster) for a trip on the Grand Union Canal in a narrow boat.

Only problem - the boat company had packed it in for the day.

Still Stoke Bruerne was beautiful ...

... and it was interesting to see and read about the 2.813km Blisworth Tunnel built in the late 1700's and opened in 1805

and to see another narrow boat navigate through a lock 

And then a quick drink in The Navigation - a gorgeous pub on the bank of the canal.  Btw - I'm having a half pint of shandy just about everywhere I go! 😀

Thur 24 Aug - Weedon Bec

Julie left her admin job a few years ago and now runs her own gardening business.  She knows gardens and is a regular visitor to the lovely Coton Manor...

There were flowers...

and chickens

  and cows 

and ducklings...

 and bumble bees 

and .... FLAMINGOs!